


Pepero Game

by HellsBella



Series: amare [1]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bickering, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Making Out, Pre-Relationship, Valentine’s Day, a little mention of pandemic world - mostly about sanitizing your hands, crackish (a little bit), domestic life, for now Karin calls Rukia by her name, make out session descripted as poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-17 20:13:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29477526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HellsBella/pseuds/HellsBella
Summary: Rukia spends Valentine’s Day with Ichigo’s family.She asks him about the pepero game.
Relationships: Kuchiki Rukia & Kurosaki Ichigo, Kuchiki Rukia/Kurosaki Ichigo
Series: amare [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2167038
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	Pepero Game

**Author's Note:**

> I thought about making this as an AU thread on twt. 
> 
> I started writing this on 14th and finished on 15th, still it got posted in the early hours of 16th February, haha. Happy birthday to me! 
> 
> (I wish I had this type of energy to write that fast my other three IR WIPs? TT )
> 
> Set in 2021.

Today was Valentine’s Day, so called the holiday of love. 

The inside of the Kurosaki household was decorated with pastel, bright colors - the ones that dominated the most were shades of red and pink, however this wasn’t everything! The aroma of freshly baked cakes and chocolate could be smelt around the house - courtesy of Yuzu - who woke up earlier than usual and created those pastries for her family (she actually started on Friday evening with her prep). 

Honestly the only ones who really celebrated the Valentine’s were her and Isshin - if anyone would ask to put the Kurosakis siblings into any category when it came to this celebration, it would be two categories: interested, loving it, in which Yuzu (plus Isshin!) belonged to and uninterested one that included Ichigo and Karin. Even though those two weren’t into this holiday, they were obligated to help with cleaning, decorating the house, as well as shopping. 

And if they didn’t do anything, there was a punishment in a form of whining and some guilt tripping from both Yuzu and Isshin, and honestly those two were little gremlins when it came to any holiday celebrations - not only this one, hence the oldest and the youngest sibling ones were doing what was asked of them (with some arguments alongside the preparation process). 

It was…

“Such a pain in an ass,” Ichigo finished his explanation to Rukia on the morning of 14th February (who asked about Valentine’s Day) wanting to know more about the festivities of the World of Living. 

“You know, you can show love to your significant other not only on that particular day. Also there’s a lot of similar holidays around the world to Valentine's. Plus next month there’s a White Day”. 

“White Day? What is that?” Rukia wondered out loud from the bed, she had an open magazine in front of her.

Ichigo put his hand up to scratch his neck.

“Uh.. it’s a.. um. It’s kind of a reply to Valentine’s Day. I mean… Most girls give chocolates to the person they like - it doesn’t have to be love, for example Yuzu gives me chocolates but I’m her brother, so she doesn’t mean it in a romantic sense and sometimes girls are giving their classmate and others an obligatory chocolate. And White Day is a day where guys give back the chocolates to the girls that gave them one during Valentine's Day or that they actually like back. You know, in a romantic sense.” Ichigo stammered away his explanation, he hoped he made sense. 

He added, “Of course there could be other traditions, instead of giving the chocolate back they give them a white ribbon.” 

“Ah. Interesting.” Rukia answered with her low voice, a hint of _something_ made Ichigo to be a little cautious.

“What do you mean?” he inquired hesitantly. 

“Ah, nothing, nothing.” Rukia ignored his question and waved her hand to show it was not a big deal. 

Before Ichigo could inquire more or start grumbling that she’s ignored him, she said, 

“What is a pocky or pepero game?” 

“HUH?!” He exclaimed - not being ready for this question and stood from his desk in shock. 

Rukia only blinked at him, waiting patiently for an explanation. 

Ichigo blew air and sat down back on his chair. 

“Okay. So, it’s a game where you play with two people, you put a pocky stick between your lips. Remember to not bite it off! Uh, it just has to stay there and the other person puts the other side of the stick in their mouth,” at this part Rukia’s eyes became so big, that if it was a different situation Ichigo would have totally laughed at her. 

Ichigo continued, ”and you both start to eat your ends of it - to meet in the middle. This game is about not letting the pocky stick to drop or break. The goal is to meet in the middle with some pocky left between both lips. Or when your lips meet.” He muttered the last part. 

Rukia was processing what he had just said, deep in a thought. He wasn’t sure if she heard that last part or not, so he thought it would be better to attack now before she started to ask more questions.

“Why are you asking about that? Did you read it in that magazine in front of you or someone said something?” Ichigo said it in his cocky, bratty voice, a smirk playing on his lips just to throw Rukia off a track. 

Before she could retort they heard some noise from the downstairs.

“Oh no!” Ichigo and Rukia heard Yuzu’s voice full of disbelief. 

They looked at each other and ran down the stairs to see what happened. Maybe Isshin was messing around once again. 

They found her in front of the fridge, no sight of Ichigo's father anywhere in the kitchen, thankfully. Karin came to the kitchen after them, also curious about what surprised her older twin. 

“What’s up?” She was first to ask. 

Yuzu turned back from the fridge, eyes a little teared up in helplessness. 

“We don’t have enough eggs - I thought we had enough of them, but apparently we don’t,” she whispered, a little tiny bit of anger was noted in her voice along with disappointment. 

Karin walked to her and hugged her, “It’s okay. Ichi-nii will get them with Rukia.” 

“Eh?” 

Came from a surprised Ichigo. He wanted to deny but Karin sent him a glare and Yuzu looked with hope and stars in her eyes at him. 

He gulped. 

“Will you do that for me onii-chan?” Yuzu asked with her soft voice full of hope for her brother being a knight in a shining armor coming to her rescue. Anger and disappointment long gone from her voice.

He really didn’t want to go though, it was cold and he was in a lazy mood. All he wanted to do was watch some movies, maybe play some games and bicker with Rukia over silly things and then become one with his bed or the couch, as a potato, Yes, he wanted to become a couch potato. But the look his sisters were giving him… 

Eh. 

It was difficult to be an older brother.

However, before Ichigo could agree, Rukia beat him to it and agreed to go and buy those eggs. She also asked Yuzu if she needed them to buy anything else. 

After a while Yuzu gave them a short list and they were ready to go. 

*

The walk to a supermarket was full of silence. They were wrapped up from head to toe so it would be difficult for them to talk anyway. Also having masks on their faces didn’t help and it was so cold at the same time, therefore they just walked briskly to get to the supermarket, do the shopping and return home as quickly as possible. 

They walked into the supermarket, sanitized their hands and took the basket. 

The eggs were in the fridge section, so they went there first to get it over with. The next on the list was milk (Ichigo also got favored boxes - strawberry and peach for them, and other flavors for his sisters and dad). 

Then Ichigo led them into the aisle with instant noodles full of ramen (also imported ones) and other products. He knew this aisle as the back of his hand, he could buy here with closed eyes, he reached to the shelves that held his favorite noodles and took the spicy ones for himself (mostly Korean ramyeon) and mild ones for the rest of the family. 

Rukia giggled to herself at his antics. 

.

They were almost wrapped up with their shopping, they only needed to get some sweets and were done. 

In that aisle Rukia was looking intently between pockys and peperos spread on the shelves. 

She wanted to take one but at the same time, she wasn't sure if taking them was a good idea. 

Especially when she was with Ichigo and after their conversation about that game. There was some strange energy… No, more like a tension, between them. (Maybe others wouldn’t pick up on it but them _being_ them, they just _k_ _new_ ). She didn’t want to make things more awkward or make him feel uncomfortable by taking them. 

While Rukia was lost in her thoughts she hadn’t heard Ichigo telling her that he got everything from this aisle and was now standing next to her looking between her and the shelf. 

He let out a soft, barely heard sigh and just put his hand out to take the first package that his hands got a hold of and put it into his basket, and turned away without a word. 

Rukia, who only noticed his hand after it suddenly shot up and snatched the snack, was in shock. She turned her head to see him walk towards the self-service checkout. 

_What a…. !!_ She thought and ran after him.

*

When they got back home there were noises coming from the kitchen. After taking the shoes and outerwear off, as well as, sanitizing their hands (the sanitizer was camomile scented). 

They went over there with bags full of groceries (one bag held his ramyeons and Rukia’s snack). What they saw was an amusing picture of Yuzu scolding Isshin, who apparently was snacking away on Yuzu's creations. 

“We are back. Here are the groceries we got,” Ichigo put them on the table, one bag on the floor. He shot a glare at his father, who was grumbling “how it’s not fair that he can’t eat all of those goodness before dinner time.” 

Karin couldn't stand it anymore and told him that he was acting like a child and if it continued he wouldn’t get anything even after dinner, if he still would act like that. 

That shut him up. 

“Onii-chan did you get something to drink? I know it wasn’t on the list but we are one bottle short…” Yuzu asked politely.

Ichigo nodded and got a carton of juice and bottle of coke outside the shopping bag. Yuzu smiled at the sight. 

“Thank you!” She exclaimed and in a jumping steps took them from him and put the juice into the fridge and the bottle of coke into their small pantry. 

After that all Kurosakis got to work, unpacking the groceries, Rukia was also helping. Karin turned on the bluetooth speakers and played music from her iPod - she had a playlist running in no time. 

Ichigo disappeared for a second to carry his goods to his room. Leaving Rukia to a dancing Isshin who was fooling around the groceries making the girls laugh.

*

After dinner, Rukia and Ichigo were washing the dishes, Yuzu was relaxing in the living room watching her little sister playing a video game in front of the TV. 

Isshin was looking for board games in a closet. They planned to play a few rounds of every board game they owned. But before that, they will eat a dessert prepared by Yuzu - it was a Valentine’s gift from her.

“We finished,” Rukia announced while walking into the living room, Ichigo in tow. 

She sat unceremoniously in her bean bag armchair. Ichigo sat next to her but on a fluffy pillow on the floor - near the coffee table. 

Yuzu looked at them with a smile on her face, she was so happy to see her family members be happy. It made her happy, part of her wished their mother was also here. 

Instinctively she looked at the poster of Masaki, a sad look crossed her face, Karin noticed this and looked at her sister questioningly. When Yuzu noticed her gaze, she just smiled at her and waved her hand to indicate that she was okay. She was about to sit up when Karin announced that she will bring the cake here and Isshin is going to help her with this task. He wanted to start whining but one look from his youngest daughter and he stopped before he could even start. Yuzu laughed at that. 

“Okay, we are going to bring the cake here and Yuzu is going to take a rest,” he reflected on his behavior. 

Those who stayed in the living room chatted a little bit with each other and from time to time heard some arguments from the kitchen. 

.

.

The cake and ice cream, and other sweet tooth rotting things got consumed and now it was time to play - the fight was fierce between Isshin, Karin and Ichigo. And after some time Yuzu and Rukia had to step in, which resulted in three parties sulking. 

After dessert dishes got washed, this time by Isshin (Karin made sure he was the one to do it). 

Girls went into their room, Isshin went to make some tea for himself and hot chocolate for Rukia. Ichigo didn’t want anything to drink at the moment, so he went to get one of his spicy ramyeons and was preparing it in the kitchen alongside his father, who was only waiting for the water to boil. 

Rukia was waiting for them while sitting by the table. 

“Remember to not drink water when you eat this, son.” Isshin advised. 

“I know, old man, I know. I’m not doing this for the first time,” came a slightly irritated reply from the ginger head male. “I will take yogurt or milk from the fridge. And if we have buttermilk then instead of them, I will take it.”

Rukia was observing this exchange with a smile on her lips. Sometimes those two were so alike, however she was sure neither of them would ever admit it. 

So, she will keep it to herself. 

“Aren’t you going to drink that strawberry milk?” Isshin asked his son, remembering that he had put a box of strawberry milk in the fridge.

“Nah, I’m leaving this as a night snack or for breakfast, so don’t drink mine.” 

.

She must have zoned out, because there was already a mug with hot choco waiting in front of her, Ichigo had placed his plate with ramyeon on the table in front of his chair and was getting the yogurt from the fridge and Isshin was already sitting on her left, sipping his tea while scrolling down his tablet. 

She blinked. 

Ichigo was walking to the table, she smirked at him. 

“No buttermilk, hah?” Her eyes were full of mischief. 

He made a face at her.

“Oh shut it.” 

Her smirk got bigger at it, she leaned over the table - Ichigo already sat down in front of her. 

“It’s funny how you like spicy things and some things bitter as buttermilk.” 

She cocked her eyebrow at him. 

“It's not my fault your palate is soft and you can’t handle some spicy stuff or bitter ones.” 

Ichigo challenged her with his own raised eyebrow and cocky smirk. 

Rukia was about to tell him what she thought when Isshin cleared his throat and said, 

“Stop flirting. I’m a fragile soul.” 

Both Rukia and Ichigo looked at him with dumbfounded looks on their faces - in that short period of time they forgot about his presence. 

“Maybe I should leave you two here, so you could resolve that. uh, sexual tension between you two. Huh?” He said with a smirk, looking from Rukia to his son and back. 

They had to sit back down, as the result of their banter they didn't realize when they started to lean forward each other over the table. Isshin smirk was becoming bigger and bigger. 

Rukia and Ichigo were so red on their faces, it was funny to tease them once in a while.

“Thanks. Now please enjoy your food Ichigo. And Rukia, honey, enjoy your hot chocolate, and I’ll continue reading this article. Mmmkay?” His question was met with silence, he guessed it was a good sign and continued to drink his tea and read (actually) a fanfic (he wasn’t really in a mood for serious stuff).

Peace didn't last long when he felt some shenanigans happening under the table. 

He looked up - Rukia was smirking at his son, and Ichigo was shooting glares in her direction, a slight blush re-appearing on his face. 

_Ah, youngsters._ He shook his head and smiled to himself. 

However, them playing footsies under the table distracted him after a while and he heard some yelp. 

“Behave,” he let a vibrating growl leave his lips and used a little bit of his aura just to fuck with them. 

They stopped _immediately_ whatever they were really doing after **that** warning. 

Too scared to continue. 

*

Fortunately they survived and the tension didn’t last that long, they continued to bicker - with Isshin joying to Ichigo’s chagrin. 

Isshin said he would take care of dishes and sent those _two dorks_ \- his words - upstairs. 

Rukia was following Ichigo up the stairs, the first thing he did when they entered his room was to turn on the light and threw himself on the bed - he covered his eyes with a hand and groaned.

"We can finally have some rest now and do nothing,” he said.

Rukia walked to the desk on which the tote bag was lying.

“This holiday is really making you this way,” noted Rukia while she started to rummage the bag. 

“Well, I have nothing against this holiday but at the same time, as I told you before, there’s a lot of versions of this holiday, especially in China. And people become nuts over it, as if they cannot show affection to their partners without this day. That’s bullshit.” He muttered hotly. 

“So, if you had a significant other you would enjoy it?” She curiously asked him. 

He pulled his hand from his eyes, and looked up at her, a curious glint and soft eyes looked at her but there was also some sort of determination in them as well. 

Before she registered, he sat up and his face was close to hers. 

“I don’t know,” he finally admitted, “I honestly doubt I’d only show that I love them on this particular day. I’d try to do that every day.” 

Rukia could feel the sincerity of his words. 

“Same here.” She whispered. 

He took her hands in his, pulling them near his mouth and kissing her knuckles. 

Rukia trembled in anticipation. He was staring into her eyes, imploring, asking for permission to move forward. She granted it by nodding and saying a soft agreement of “yes”. 

Ichigo leaned his head closer to hers, his eyes switching between her eyes and lips. 

He was about to close the gap but Rukia was faster in connecting their lips. 

It wasn’t sweet or anything like that, it was sloppy and full of teeth - awkward in its amateurs movements, but it was _theirs_. 

They pulled from each other, catching their breaths in puffs of air, their foreheads touching. 

Rukia started to giggle, Ichigo moved away from her to take a look at her full face - she was flushed, her lips were coated with a slight measure of saliva and were swollen (thanks to those teeth!). He huffed.

“You don’t have to laugh at me, it was my first time kissing anyone,” came his soft whining, he also said it wasn’t fair. _“Damnit.”_

Rukia burst more at this. Now her giggle transformed into a full blown laughter. Ichigo only grumbled with a scowl on his face, but she knew he wasn’t really annoyed or anything like that. 

After a short while he also started laughing with her. His forehead again touching hers, both of them shaking from laughter. 

When their laughing attack came to halt, she told him that it was also her first kiss. 

“Really?” He asked softly.

“Really.” Rukia confirmed.

And then their lips tentatively touched again.

.

Lips meeting each other in a beat, to become one just for a short time once again.

This time the kiss was so soft, almost like a feather touching skin. 

Lips moving apart a little to let out content sighs. 

Then…

Slowly, sensually, lips start moving in tandem. 

Slight opening of one’s lips, licking the others lip with their tongue. 

A gasp.

Eyes meet, smiles are exchanged and the dance starts once again.

*

They were both lying on the bed. 

Rukia had her head on his chest - their breathing not calm at all, the beating heart below her ear wasn't better. She was sure her heart also wasn’t any better - both hearts beating and breaths frantic after their activities. 

The past few minutes both of them spent kissing each other, exploring their mouths, tasting and finding out what they liked or disliked. 

Ichigo discovered that biting on Rukia’s lower lip made her draw a soft moan coming from her lips.

While Rukia found out that if she put her hands in Ichigo's hair, he would also make some _interesting_ noises. For her ears only.

Pushing each other buttons was leading to more passionate kisses, as well as wandering hands. 

*

Rukia started to rummage in the bag once again, this time being able to take out a package of pepero. 

She looked at it curiously and shot, an unsuspecting Ichigo, a teasing gaze. He was busy looking through her magazine. 

“It’s not pocky but pepero.” Rukia stated in a high pitched voice while showing him the package.

“It’s that same damn shit Rukia, don’t complicate things,” he barked back at her teasingly, her high pitched voice gave her away.

She only rolled her eyes at him and then smiled, he replied with a smile of his own. 

“So, are we going to play that poc... pepero game then?” She asked good naturally. 

Her eyes were sparkling.

“Well, we can.” Ichigo replied gently and leaned to give her a quick peck in the mouth.

Rukia gave him the packaging.

Ichigo unwrapped it and cut the foil containing the pepero snack with scissors, he tried to open it without using them but it didn’t work out.... Rukia giggled at that, only stopping when Ichigo shot her a glare. 

Once he got one pepero stick outside of the foil, he asked her which side she wanted: the one covered with chocolate or plain one? 

“Chocolate!” was her instant reply, voice getting higher from the excitement. He could swear he was seeing stars around her petite form. 

He put it in her mouth, before he could put the other side into his - she bit it. 

Inwardly Ichigo was screaming the infamous Darth Vader’s NO! POGRÓBIENIE słowa nie

Outwardly he just let a tired exhale but one look at a happy Rukia munching on that pepero stick made him smile. He took another one and ate it. 

They were smiling at each other. 

.

Actually, it started their little competition. 

“You bit it too fast!” At some point Rukia accused him of cheating, which is ridiculous, he only rolled his eyes. And stated that it’s impossible to cheat in a pepero game. 

However, it was true - but only that point of him biting it too fast not cheating! - there was still some space left of the pepero stick that was between their lips, now lying on his hand. 

Ichigo throwed the rest of it into his mouth, munching away. Rukia kicked his calf - surprisingly it didn’t hurt that much. He stuck his tongue at her, the same way he did when they bantered on the bridge. 

They got another pepero, this time the chocolate point in his mouth - Rukia put most of the other side into her mouth and bit so close to his lips that they almost touched. 

It was her little revenge. 

She leaned back from his face, wiping some left chocolate off her lip and sending him a cocky look with all the combo - cocked eyebrow, that thumb in her mouth and playful smile. 

Ichigo thought he may combust soon enough. 

He shook himself, 

_Nope. Two can play this game then._

Neither of them let go, they enjoyed playing around but when Rukia repeated her previous action with biting just _this_ close for their lips to touch again - he snapped. His lips followed hers even before the bite was complete, caging their lips together. 

Open mouthed kisses followed making them forget about the game for some time….

.

It wasn’t really fair. 

Although Ichigo and Rukia resumed the game, it didn't matter if their lips were just close to each other (still leaving some pepero between them) or met in the middle - they started making out. 

The hunger has to be satisfied. 

*

Karin called them down and added (on a whim) a comment about them to stop smooching each other faces off in Ichi-nii’s room and to help them to choose movies to watch for a (Valentine) Movie Night - a project started by Masaki and Isshin when Ichigo was still a little munchkin. 

There were some quarrels during a choosing process - everybody wanted to watch something else. Karin wanted to watch ‘Bend it like Beckham’,

while Yuzu and Isshin wanted to watch a typical rom com. While Ichigo would rather turn on DVD or Blu-ray with a concert or just stream it on their TV. (Or just go back to his room with Rukia and make-out some more, yeah that was the greatest idea - but he won’t say it out loud). 

As for Rukia, being the undecided party in their household, held the final vote (in the near future, Rukia will also have a list of films to watch and then the Kurosakis will have to play rock-paper-scissors). 

.

At the end of the day, they were watching some Western rom-com about a girl that met three guys and all of them became infatuated with her - meaning, the team rom-com choice had won. 

At some point during the movie night, the twins fell asleep on Ichigo, who was lying on the couch - his dream of becoming a couch potato became a reality. 

Rukia, seeing that smirked to herself, now sitting on a pillow below the couch, sipping a warm tea. 

Isshin carried empty popcorn bowls back into the kitchen - the movie night was done for today and the movie ending credits were already rolling on the screen - leaving Rukia and Ichigo alone, well, with sleeping girls but these are non important details. 

“Did you enjoy the movie?” Asked Ichigo with curiosity. 

Rukia finished taking a sip of her tea. Put the glass on the coffee table and looked up at him from her position. 

“Yes. However there were some elements that I didn’t like but I don’t feel like discussing them right now. I think I need to sleep on them.” She finally said.

“Hm,” he mused out loud, his hand stroking her arm. 

He beckoned her to lean forward to capture her lips with his in a soft kiss. 

**Author's Note:**

> Btw. remember to drink milk, buttermilk or eat yogurt somewhere in between biting into spicy food. 
> 
> The movie they end up watching is _Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence_. 
> 
> Also I’d appreciate it if someone would point out mistakes I made, I edited it but you know how this is.
> 
> All missing sentences were fixed (hopefully!).


End file.
